sign in sign up
<<
Home , Abjad, Acrophony, Alphabet, Cherokee syllabary, Cuneiform, Grapheme

Constructed

Day 6 - Systems BEFORE WE BEGIN....

Let’ finish discussing our conlangs thus far. What is writing? WHAT IS WRITING?

• Writing is the representation of with the use of visual

•The primary goal of writing is to make our utterances, which are by default audible, visible ICONIC SIGNS

• Signs within may iconic ● the signifier bears strong resemblance to the signified ● Signifier = , , , etc. ● Signified = what the represents (, sound, etc.)

Egyptian < pr > ‘house’ SYMBOLIC SIGNS

• Or symbolic ● arbitrary relationship between the signifier and signified STANDING STONE BUT EVERY WRITING SYSTEM MUST REPRESENT LANGUAGE

Represents the ‘house’ & the /pr/

Represents the of ICONIC & SYMBOLIC WRITING SYSTEMS

• Is the English iconic or symbolic?

? Whether iconic or symbolic, writing must represent language. THE CHEYENNE INDIAN LETTER

• 19th . message from Turtle-Following-His-Wife to his son, Little Man • Says something like: “Dad (TFHW) says to return home, enclosed is $53 for the cost of the trip” THE CHEYENNE INDIAN LETTER

• Is this instance of writing? Why or why not? PICTOGRAPHS =/= WRITING

• The Cheyenne letter is an instance of pictographs ● = picture writing

• pictorial representation of objects, ideas and events ● Signs represent an event or an idea and not direct language

• .., , , phonemes, etc. ● Independent of a word or utterance, which refers to that object, idea or event Any modern pictographs in America? MODERN PICTOGRAPHS

• In each of the examples above, pictographs convey an idea, event or a story

• But in order for a graphic mark to be true writing, it must represent language Types of Writing Systems? TYPES OF WRITING SYSTEMS

• In devising a writing system one must choose between representing meaning (semiography) or representing sound (phonography):

Meaning Semiography Writing Phonography Sound TYPES OF WRITING SYSTEMS

• So writing systems are always either: 1. Phonological ● Contains signs that represent individual sounds that are contrastive in a particular language ● “Phonographic” writing system • Phono- ‘sound’, graph- ‘write 2. Morphological: ● Contains signs that represent individual morphemes that are contrastive in a particular language ● “Logographic” writing system • - ‘word’, graph- ‘write’ LOGOGRAPHIC :CHINESE

• These represent the words ‘happiness’, ‘love’ and ‘joy’

• Not the phonographic equivalents of said words in Chinese ANY LOGOGRAPHIC SIGNS THAT WE USE IN ENGLISH?

• What do you think?

• There are a few:

1. Numerals: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.

1. Mathematical symbols: + , - , = , × , etc.

1. Other common symbols: &, %, $, €, #, etc. ANY “PURELY” LOGOGRAPHIC SCRIPTS?

• Nope! ● No “pure” logographic scripts, as each logographic system has at least some phonological signs

• Why not? ● For a writing system to adequately represent a language, it must be able to represent words that are newly introduced in the language, like:

• names • foreign words

• new words created with derivational morphemes, etc. PHONOGRAPHIC WRITING SYSTEMS

• There are a number of different ways that phonographic writing systems may represent the of a language • Traditionally divided into: Syllabic ● represent (completely or incompletely) Segmental ● Graphemes represent phonemes (completely or incompletely) SYLLABIC SCRIPTS

• Syllabic scripts = ● Signs stand for syllables, not individual phonemes

• What would English look like if we used a ?

• WHAT’S A SYLLABLE? WHAT’S A SYLLABLE?

• So a syllable has three parts to it: the onset, the nucleus and the coda. • The nucleus and coda form another phonological unit, which is called the rhyme

2 6 SYLLABARIES

• Many of the world’s languages that utilize syllabaries have very restrictive syllable structure

• Syllables look like CVCVCVCVCV ● CV = + ● cf. Hawaiian meli kalikamaka ‘Merry Christmas’ ● cf. Japanese meri kurisumasu ‘Merry Christmas’ SYLLABARIES

• In a syllabary, each should represent a syllable ● And what does every syllable have? ● A nucleus! (usually a vowel, ) ● So each grapheme – at the bare minimum – should represent a nucleus JAPANESE SYLLABARY ENGLISH AS A SYLLABARY?

• Both Japanese & Cherokee have relatively simple syllable structures • Simple = no consonant clusters, CV ● Why is this good for a language using a syllabary? ● Is English a good candidate for using a syllabary? ● English:

• Onsets (1, 25) + (2, ~42) + (3 ~ 9) = 76 • Nuclei – 18 (14 + syllabic liquids, nasals)

• Codas – ~100 • 18 + (76 x 18) + (100 x 18) + (76 x 18 x 100) = 139,986!!!!! SEGMENTAL SYSTEMS

• Graphemes represent discrete phonological segments (phonemes)

• First type of segmental systems you’re familiar with

• Alphabet ● Graphemes represent and vowels CYRILLIC ALPHABET

• , aka consonant(al) alphabet ● Graphemes represent consonants only

• Cn ’ll rd ths sntnc? Ths s wht nglsh wld lk lk th lphbt wr bjd. ABJADS - ARABIC ALPHASYLLABARIES

• Alphasyllabary ● Graphemes represent consonants and vowels, but are grouped by syllable ● Cf. , the script of : ALPHASYLLABARIES

• Cf. the Ethiopic Ge‘ez script, used to write and Tigrinya (both )

What are the symbols for:

// /n/ /i/ /e/ TO REVIEW

1. Logographic: graphemes = morphemes

2. Phonographic: graphemes = sounds a) Syllabic: ) Segmental

1) Alphabet

2) Abjad

3) Alphasyllabary IN CONLANGS...

FUTURAMA

KLINGON - TYPE?

DaH mojaq-mey-vam DI-vuS-nIS-be' 'e' vI-Har now suffix-PL-DEM 1PL.A.3PL.P-limit-need-NEG that 1SG.A.3SG.P-believe "I believe that we do not need to limit these suffixes now."

Transliteration Translation Ash nazg durbatuluk One to rule them all, Ash nazg gimbatul One Ring to find them, Ash nazg thrakatuluk One Ring to bring them all Agh burzum-ishi krimpatul and in the darkness bind them

TENGWAR SCRIPT

· May be written in two different “modes”: tehta mode and the mode of Beleriand tehta – vowels = http://www.omniglot.com/writing/tengwar.htm

Ir Rúmil teithȧnt i thîw vinui, “When Rúmil drew the first letters a Faenor hain prestant, “And Fëanor changed them, i Ngolodhr hyn eglerianner. “the Noldor praised them.”

Dar ig Daegor teithart i khigth virui, “But when Daegor drew the first , i Thiougim ghlarreg - “the Sindar laughed - & ir raughgim shor eghlegiarreg “and the Dwarves praised him.”

http://www.omniglot.com/conscripts/cirth.htm

• Oeri peyæ fahew akewong ontu teya længu. My nose is full of his alien smell. • Fisk’aungiri tsapʔalute sengi oe. I apologise for this moron. • Oel ŋati kameie. I see you. • ’ new ŋa rivei, oehu! Come with me if you want to live! • Eiwa the Pandoran deity • tiftia kifkeiæ science

FROM OMNIGLOT

http://www.omniglot.com/conscripts/scar.htm FROM OMNIGLOT

http://www.omniglot.com/conscripts/balinsilel.htm Example : Heptapod For Today - Writing Systems

1. Create an original writing system for your language. 2. It may be an : a. Alphabet b. Abjad c. Alphasyllabary . Logographic System e. Hybrid f. Something else????? Constructed Languages

Day 6 - Side-Note : the Systems CHINA (1700 BCE)

oracle bone (700 BCE)

Mayan hieroglyph

Teotihuacan (4000 BCE)

cuneiform tablet ORIGINS OF WRITING

• In each of these cases, writing was invented in a culture that was: ● technologically advanced, ● a sedentary civilization with , ● has a division of labor and

● a surplus economy MESOPOTAMIA – WHY WAS WRITING INVENTED? • In the , writing invented to record business transactions • Made possible the keeping of reliable records for palaces and temples of ● grain ● produce ● livestock ● textiles MESOPOTAMIAN WRITING - CUNEIFORM

CUNEIFORM EXAMPLE – 196TH LAW OF , KING OF (1750 BCE)

šu-- a-wi-lum i-in ma-a-ar ši uḫ-ta-ap-pid i-in šu -ḫa-ap--du

[ʃumma awilum iːn maːr ši uħtappid iːn ʃu uħappadu]

“If a man destroys the eye of a man’s son, his eye will be destroyed.” EVOLUTION OF SIGNS

What happened in 3000 bce?

cf. HOW MIGHT THAT HAPPEN? WAYS CUNEIFORM SIGNS ALTERED IN SUMERIAN

1. Creation of Phonographic Signs ● This enables the Sumerians to write word endings like

• cases: ergative, dative, absolutive • verbal agreement roots only

affixes added HOW WERE PHONOGRAPHS CREATED?

+ = ?

The Rebus Principle The use of an easily pictured object to stand for its more abstract homonym. REBUS PRINCIPLE ANOTHER ONE (COURTESY OF SHEALYNN HALL) ANOTHER ONE (COURTESY OF HILLARY SMITH) CREATION OF PHONOGRAPHS

‘’ → <še> CREATION OF PHONOGRAPHS

‘tool’ [ba] → ‘distribute’ [ba] CREATION OF PHONOGRAPHS

‘body’ [su] → ‘replace’ [su] CREATION OF PHONOGRAPHS

‘plant’ [sar/šar] → ‘write’ CREATION OF PHONOGRAPHS

‘arrow’ [] → [til] ‘life’ SPREAD OF WRITING

Stimulus Diffusion HOW DOES EGYPTIAN WORK?

• Very similar to Cuneiform:

● Logograms

● Phonograms

• Not – Consonantograms! EGYPTIAN LOGOGRAMS

/pr/ ‘house’ /’/ ‘sun, day’ EGYPTIAN CONSONANTOGRAMS

• 1 consonant:

• 2 consonants:

• 3 consonants: WHY CONSONANTOGRAMS AND NOT SYLLABOGRAMS?

• Egyptian morphemes are phonemically composed only of consonants. ● Triconsonantal – n f r ‘good, complete’ ● Biconsonantal -- p r ‘house’

• Egyptian speakers would provide grammatical and lexical modifications to these roots by providing different vowels ● nafir ‘good’ (masc.) ● nafra-t ‘good’ (feminine + t suffix) 84

SIMILARLY, IN ARABIC

• ktb is the root, the vowels that are interweaved determine the meaning WHERE HAVE WE SEEN THIS BEFORE?

• ABLAUT!

● drink, drank, drunk

● sing, sang, sung, song

● bind, bound, band, bond

● sit, sat, seat, -st SPEAKING OF ENGLISH…

Where did our alphabet come from?!? PROTO-CANAANITE

• Speakers of Semitic language

• Worked in the Egyptian mines ● Had relatives living in Middle- Bronze-Age Palestine

• We’ve only got a few inscriptions, all quite short ca. 1800 BCE WADI EL-HOL

rb ‘chief’

ʔl ‘god’ HIEROGLYPHS!

• Usually used logograms and multiconsonantal graphemes

• Had a full set of signs that each stood for a single consonant (just like the Semitic abjad)

• But the Semitic mercenaries and dwellers who created the Semitic alphabet didn’t care!

● Just wanted the simplest, easiest script that suited their language. HIEROGLYPHS?

• Amalia Gnanadesikan:

● ‘[The Proto-Canaanites] created their own bare- bones set of uniconsonantal signs, modeled after the Egyptian ones. This was the “For Dummies” version of writing, stripped of all complexity and redundancy.’

ACROPHONY Value of an iconic symbol is taken from the first sound of the name of the object it represents

= < t >

< d > = ACROPHONIC GREETING IN PROTO-CANAANITE

• The symbols and the acrophonic principle were borrowed from Egyptian – the sound values of the graphemes were not!

< pr > → < b >, Semitic bēt ‘house’ < n > → < m >, Semitic ‘water’ < ɟ > → < n >, Semitic nahas ‘snake’ < r > → < ʕ > , Semitic ʕayin ‘eye’ TO REVIEW

…

Proto- Sumerian Egyptian Canaanite

stimulus diffusion signs, not values taken Tokens TIMELINE http://speakingprimal.blogspot.com/2017/03/the- izila-wenja-script.html For Next Time - Diachrony

1. Create /describe the linguistic history of your language 2. Create another language related to your own, and imagine how the two can be connected through:

a. b. Morphological Change

c. Syntactic Change